During this summer's Kingsnorth climate camp the police kicked into full fear-mongering mode, going in in riot gear and generally making £5.9m of work for themselves. They even confiscated a copy of "War on Terror - the Board Game", because it contains a balaclava with EVIL written on it. Apparently troops in Afghanistan are allowed it, though (left).
I have the game, and if you're prepared to do some work on the game dynamics and balance I recommend it. Spin the axis of evil and decide who wears that balaclava. Buy yours here.
Anyway, at the time, seventy officers were reported injured by the Kingsnorth protesters, which you can see might justify a heavier touch and some arrests. Today, however, it transpires that the total injuries were just twelve, and they included "stung on finger by possible wasp", "officer injured sitting in car" and "officer succumbed to sun and heat". No officers were injured by protesters, or if injuries occurred they weren't deemed prosecutable. The Guardian reports that:
One officer cut his arm on a fence when climbing over it, another cut his finger while mending a car, and one "used leg to open door and next day had pain in lower back".
Other officers had toothache, diarrhoea and headaches. Given the protesters took the blame for this motley list of afflictions, Kent Police presumably believe climate campers included special voodoo operatives with dolls in police uniform, poking them with plastic wasps and shining bright lights on them from a nearby teepee. The only other sensible explanation is that it was just the usual New Labour war on peaceful protest, using the police as a tooled-up PR department, just as they used the army on the eve of the Iraq war.
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